New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-01-01
QUESTION OF IEENTTTY.

AlTthe evidence thus far presentcd tends to
the conclusion that the arrest OF Mrs. Harriet
f. Lyon upon a charge of larceny preferred by
Mrs. Emha G.. Nichols is the result of mistake
10 identiAcation Mrs. Nichols, two months ago.
engaged bne Emma Steckler as hOuse servant
The pewlt engaged woman left her place after
being theme few hours, and stole some silver
ware and( clothing. Mrs. Nichols met Mrs.
LYON in ad elevated railroad car, and believing
her to be Emma Siecker caused her arrest.
The prisoner declared that she was music
teacher living at West Farms, that she had
never beenGn sery ice, and knew nothing OF the
facts alleged by Mrs. Nichols. Before Police
Justice Wetle she produced evidence that she
was i'll i'm bh with pneumonia on the day Mrs.
Nichols wasrobbed. That evidence ought to
have cleared her. The alibi was made out be-
yOnd dispute But the court held the defendant
to answer in tefance of testimony which de-
monstrated hbr innocence and the treachery OF
the prosecuting witnesses memory, and he ap-
pears 70 have attempted to justify this strange
course by reference to the positiveness with
which Mrs. Nifhols adhered to her first impress
sion.
Now, while il is not surprising that iady
should be iynotant of the danger and delicacy
attending all questions of identity, Justice
Welde certainly should have known better
ii an to put the least reliance upon recOllec-
ton resting upoh so slight knowledge Of the
person whose identity was in question: and
particularly when the impression OF Mrs.
Nichols VAS natlE contradicted by three or four
reputable wituesles, who swore that tho pris-
oner was confine( to her bed on the very day
when she was ACCUSED of comm ting the
larceny. The truth is that stakes in identity
are common, and the law books are full OF
cases in which it tould seem to tie uninitated
scarcely possible ftr such errors 10 occur. In
stances are numerous in which women have de-
cared men to be thdr husbands when in fact the
accused had never lscen them before. Women
have thought they recognized strangers and
impostors as their sons, brothers, husbands.
The Tichborne casd aboundS with proofs of the
untrustworthiness NJ tho human memory with
regard to faces, and that even when daily inter
course for years might be thought to have
Craven the portrait deep. In many instances
people have thought they recognized others
whose resemblance ID the person in question
was actually impcrcdptb when the two were
put side by side. Yet these were quite rs
positive as those Wild were deceived by real
likeresses.
Cases are recorded i'll which the resemblance
between tSO persons, strangers to one another.
has been astonishing The paracisnIs extend
ing even to scars, defotmities and birth marks
In such cases mistaken identity could hardly
be avoided, but in all bases memory is deceit
full when faces and Figures ore in question. In
the case before us therd il nothing whatever TO
incupate the accused but the recollection Of n
lady who only saw the actual thief once, and
then for a very short time. II is incredible
that she should recognize that face after two
months with any certainly. 1t is, in fact, per-
fcctly apparent that despite the pOstiVencss of
her EXPRESSION she has tothing to support her
theory but an imprcssiCp, necessarily vague.
and that impression justice Wclde has thought
lit to regard as outwdghing the emphatic
sworn declarations of the witnesses who saw
the accused i'll in bed AZ the very time Mrs.
Nichols says she was robbng her. The case Is
not even a doubtful one. Mrs Lyon ought not
to have been held. Mrs. Nichols has prepared
serious trouble for horsd IN if the defendant ia
vindictivc. Meantime a lady whose nnoceGce
all the circumstances adOuch has been put to
open shame; treated likeh professional crlm-
inal subjected - the degradation of a night in
u station house cell in coIh pany with n drunk
ard and is now held fOt trial, as if the case
presented any points which q Police Justice
possessing the cOmmOnest of common seDsc
could not settle in ten minutes. This, too, is an
example of what is called /" the administration